University of Gothenburg researchers develop faster vaccines

Developing vaccines is time consuming and expensive. Now a major research initiative with experts from 11 countries, including Sweden with researchers from the University of Gothenburg, will work on new ways to develop vaccines.

According to the European Vaccine Initiative, which is coordinating the project, it takes an average of more than ten years to develop a new vaccine. Costs at least 800 million euros.

The press release described the acquisition of a vaccine against covid-19 in just over a year as exceptional.

We need ways to speed up and simplify the development of other new vaccines, to reduce costs and shorten development time, says Ali Harandi, who leads a research group in immunology and vaccine research at the Department of Biomedicine, University of Gothenburg.

It should save time and money

In the new project, researchers will develop new models using immunology and computer science algorithms.

Potential vaccines are currently being tested first in cell culture, then in animal models and then in several stages in human clinical trials. Unfortunately, it is very common for vaccine candidates that do well in animal studies to do much worse for humans. The goal is to develop models and methods that can be used early on to select the best candidate, to save time and money, says Ali Harandi.

The project begins in September, and ends in the spring of 2027.

See also: